EL & CASTILLO DELICIOSO!

SE1’s Latin-American offerings are worth a trek, says Joanna Taylor

Elephant and Castle is a funny old place that most of the time feels like it’s 93 per cent roundabout. But if you stray from the building site that used to be the shopping centre, you’ll discover the unique magic of its Latin-American community, which offers some of the best, most wholesome food in town.

If you’re short on time take a perch at 22-year-old Coma Y Beba for a breakfast of pandebono, a cheesy bread from Colombia made with cassava starch, or a lunch of empanadas and pabellón criollo arepas, a fried pocket of cornbread filled with a mix of chicken or beef with black beans, cheese and plantain. For a casual after-work supper, seek out Leños & Carbón underneath the railway arches, where the patacón con queso, a ripe plantain with melted Colombian cheese, and arroz marinero, a seafood rice with deep-fried green plantain, are hugely comforting.

Down the road under another railway arch you’ll find Chatica, where the roscones, a ring-shaped cake stuffed with dulce de leche, papa rellenas, which are fried croquettes filled with vegetables, rice and meat, and the morcilla, a Colombian black pudding served with arepas, are the ultimate indulgence.

Meanwhile, within the less rustic Mercato Metropolitano, the thickly packed arepa buns and Venezualan rum at Guasa are a very satisfying way to begin a night out, and a few steps down Walworth Road at Delipan, the tamales and bandeja paisa, a plate of pork belly, beef, chorizo, rice, beans, cornbread, plantain and avocado, promises to soak up the night before’s sins — though beware, you may need a nap.

Speak Spanish? Don’t be afraid to use it and you may even get an extra piece of plantain or two. Disfrutar!